New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, who started his public life by leading the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement and became the Chief Minister of Delhi for three consecutive terms, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday in a money laundering case related to excise policy. Kejriwal’s career has been full of ups and downs, from being a bureaucrat to an activist and then to a political leader.
Kejriwal’s arrest comes at a time when his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is serious about winning the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat as a component of the ‘Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance’ (India) alliance of opposition parties. Is trying.
The arrest of 55-year-old AAP national convenor Kejriwal could have a serious impact on the party’s electoral prospects as he has been at the center of the party’s plans and strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. In his absence, the party may face uncertainty as many of its other senior leaders are either in jail or in political exile.
Kejriwal’s trusted aide Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia are in jail in the excise policy case, while another trusted aide Satyendar Jain is in jail in another money laundering case.
read this also: From Sisodia to Kejriwal, how the heat of ED’s investigation reached, how many have been arrested
Kejriwal, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), first led the AAP government formed in Delhi in 2013 with the outside support of the Congress.
In the New Delhi constituency, he faced former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and started his electoral political career by defeating her by a margin of 22,000 votes.
But the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress coalition government lasted only 49 days as Kejriwal resigned after being unable to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly.
Encouraged by the party’s victory in the very first election in Delhi, Kejriwal announced to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and then prime ministerial contender Narendra Modi, but he faced a crushing defeat. Had to face.
In the Delhi Assembly elections next year, Kejriwal led AAP to win 67 seats and restricted the BJP riding on the Modi wave to only three seats, while the Congress was reduced to zero seats.
In the run-up to the 2015 elections for the Delhi Assembly, he repeatedly apologized for his actions during his 49-day tenure in 2013 and promised not to step down again.
Kejriwal emerged from the 2011 anti-corruption movement and founded AAP in the national capital with his close associates on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) the following year.
In a short span of just 12 years, Kejriwal single-handedly made AAP the third largest national party in the country after BJP and Congress. The influence of ‘AAP’ is not only seen in Delhi and Punjab, but also in faraway places like Gujarat and Goa.
During his ‘India Against Corruption’ days, leaders had challenged Kejriwal to enter active politics to taste real politics. When he came into politics, he was successful in keeping issues like health, education, water and electricity supply at the center of his politics and governance. However, his opponents criticized him for abandoning his promise of Lokpal.
read this also: What is the ground of Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in Delhi liquor scam? ED had made these allegations
Kejriwal rose to prominence as an activist in 2011 due to allegations of large-scale corruption and widespread public anger at the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He still continues to target politicians for the poor state of health and education in the country.
He has taken a number of steps in his political journey of almost a decade, be it joining the ‘India’ alliance of opposition parties whose leaders he has accused of corruption in the past or adopting a ‘soft Hindutva’ approach, Examples of which are his free pilgrimage and recently raising slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in the Delhi Assembly.
Once he had demanded to put the picture of Ganesha and Lakshmi on the currency for the economic prosperity of the country.
Kejriwal’s imprisonment in the excise scam case has dealt a major blow to AAP’s claim of corruption-free governance and alternative politics.
Kejriwal, while defending Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satyendar Jain, called corruption ‘treason’ and claimed that AAP follows the path shown by Bhagat Singh.
Kejriwal’s arrest in a corruption case is indeed a major change from his earlier image, in which the AAP leader had in 2013 been accused of pressurizing the then Sheila Dikshit government to roll back ‘increased’ water and electricity bills. Had fasted for days.
Kejriwal has come a long way in a relatively short period of his political journey after establishing himself among the top leaders of the country. He began work around 2014–15 as the thin, bespectacled, muffler-wearing leader of a new party, earning him the nickname ‘Mufflerman’.
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Tags: Arvind kejriwal, Delhi liquor scam, Delhi news
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 22, 2024, 24:31 IST